Young and Old Alike

Young and old alike watching the news most every night
Listening to the hatred slurs of the black and white
Neither giving an inch nor willing to stop the fight
They fight for what they fill is wrong or may be right
Always looking for an edge but it's nowhere in sight, and
All this time evil is in flight
Coming to America to kill both the black and white
Hopefully in days to come all wrongs will be set right
So we can join together all our might, and
Destroy the evil that wants America's blood on their hands tonight

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”